Their Team Seven
by Mr. Frank
Summary: Forty one sentences: A look at the life Team Seven could have had, and whether it could ever really be. Complete.


**T**his began as a writing exersize and turned into...something else. The words are from a list I compiled by putting a playlist on shuffle and getting a word from each song title. And then I wrote. A look at the life Team Seven could have had, and whether it could ever really be. Totally took the title from the manga, which it helps to be up to date-ish with for the ending to make sense. Constructive Crit is always welcome! Enjoy~.

* * *

_Day_

The first time Kakashi realized, _really realized, _that this rediculous trio of ruffians was actually becoming a team was, oddly enough, the same day that began with a fence painting mission and ended with more paint on the ninjas than the fence.

_Danger_

At first Kakashi had been panicked when, after an especially stressful mission in which Sakura had almost lost a limb and Naruto had almost died, Sasuke and Naruto suddenly began arguing a lot more—a feat he had once imagined impossible—with his anxiety only growing when Sakura started hitting both of them rather than just Naruto (Kakashi would later realize this had marked the beginning of true teamwork among his decidedly different students).

_Hallelujah_

On her knees, hands braced against the mucky forest floor, Sakura panted hard as the adrenaline continued to pound through her veins; at least until she glanced up, and met Naruto and Sasuke's wide eyed gazes, and then suddenly the only thing any of them could do was laugh.

_Through_

Sighing contentedly, Sakura ran her fingers through Sasuke's hair, and then grinned when the raven frowned, pawing unhappily at his mussed locks.

_Beautiful_

A civilian's idea of beauty is very different from that of a shinobi—at least, Sakura assumed as much, believing that no simple villager would think pin-wheel eyes overlaid with a spray of arterial blood was in any way attractive.

_Damn_

When Sakura cursed on a mission, it was usually simple frustration; when Naruto cursed it was just because he's Naruto; and when Sasuke cursed, prideful Sasuke, that's when they really knew they were fucked.

_Animals_

Sasuke was one boy living in an entire abandoned clan compound, two when he allowed Naruto to move in, which was why it always baffled Sakura when she came to visit and beheld the incredible mess those two lone men could make.

_Tonight_

Lying under the stars, shoulder to shoulder with one teammate, arm looped around her other teammate's elbow, Sakura could close her eyes and pretend, if only for a moment, that they could be this way forever.

_Fly_

"You're an idiot," Sasuke had said when Naruto told him he wanted to test how far he could jump with Chakra, and "you're an idiot," was what Sakura said when, not twenty minutes later, both boys were sitting in her exam room, one looking much more smug than the other.

_Traffic_

"There is an art to moving a stubborn herd of cows without any stress," Kakashi had told them, at the time failing to mention that this "art" involved making you subordinates do all the work.

_Right_

When Sakura was wrong she would hang her head and feel embarrassed and inadequate; when Naruto was wrong he would accept this fact, learn from it, and move on; and when Sasuke was wrong, it would coincide with the day the world crumbled.

_Heart_

Tsunade said you felt powerful the first time you held a beating human heart in your hand, Shizune had told her you felt nauseous, and all the books said you would get over whelmed by it all; this was why Sakura was so surprised when, beating heart clutched in her fingers, she felt nothing but the certainty that _this_ was what she was meant to do.

_Tidal Wave_

Despite their seeming normalness, it didn't take much for Kakashi to sense the turbulent emotions roiling within his tiny apprentices, and he wondered more than once if he might just be drowned under it all when it finally boiled over.

_Escape_

When Sasuke or Naruto asked her why she always locked her office door when they were visiting, she found she always ended up lying, unable to explain that the only reason was to keep them and they're ever present cloud of chaos _out_.

_Real_

It's those little moments, like when she and her teammates are picking up their weapons after practice and Naruto is razzing Sasuke about his missed shots, that Sakura realizes with a kind of startled joy that this_, this, _is her life_._

_Hello_

It didn't matter that they were grown adults, or that they were on a very delicate diplomatic mission, or that their client was staring at him with a look that bordered on horror—in Kakashi's mind greeting someone with loud and pointed declarations concerning their lack of time management skills would forever be perfectly acceptable behavior.

_Never_

Sitting across from him at the little table, under romantically dimmed lighting, dining on something much too expensive to be only food; Sakura couldn't decide what surprised her more—the fact that she was actually on a date with Naruto, or the fact that, despite her best efforts, she was actually enjoying herself.

_Dance_

Sakura's favorite memory would always, _always,_ be of the day she dropped by Sasuke's unannounced, only to find her two male teammates waltzing about the living room; poor Naruto having never thought mission requirements would ever clash with his complete lack of dancing prowess.

_Absolutely_

"Did Sasuke and Naruto _actually _set their house on fire?" asked an incredulous Kakashi, who continued, after a flat look from his female teammate, "of course they did."

_Gin_

When Tsunade was handed the report stating that the country they were currently negotiating with was refusing to allow Sasuke to reenter its boarders, expected reimbursement for all of Sakura's property damage, and demanded that "the fabulous" Naruto be the official courier of all paperwork from here on out, she could only prey that some kind of serious alcohol had been involved and that, once the hangovers had cleared, some semblance of normalcy would return to the mission she'd left in Team Kakashi's "capable" hands.

_Wire_

Only the faintest line of light, flashing briefly as she flew past, alerted Sakura to the trap her teammate was about to set off; and it was Sasuke tackling Naruto bodily to the floor that kept them all from being crushed by pre-prepared falling logs.

_Girlfriend_

"She's dating _who's _brother?" Sasuke had demanded, although his temper had been quickly quelled by the venomous look the Kazekage sent his way (he figured he would just wait until later to pound the currently-snickering, secret-keeping Naruto into the ground).

_Moon_

The moon was bright, adding to the light of thousands of colorful paper lanterns that lined the streets, basking Sakura in their glow as she walked, arm-in-arm with both of her teammates and content that she couldn't have spent the festival night any other way.

_Push_

Tears poured down her face as she thrust—_one, two, three, four, five—_against an unmoving chest, forcing action—_one, two, three, four, five—_into an unmoving heart, while praying—_one, two, three, four, five—_that she would get to see grinning blue eyes and a too-wide smile—_one, two, three, four, five—_just _one more time_.

_Rain_

She couldn't decide if it was fitting or not that the rain was coming down to heavy and thick that, from where she sat together with Sasuke and Naruto atop the Hokage monument, it obscured Kakashi's funeral completely from view.

_Paranoid_

Naruto couldn't figure out why Sakura was so convinced he wasn't getting adequate nutrition; Sasuke, well aware of the fact that Naruto's half of the cupboards was all instant ramen, was less baffled.

_Video_

Kakashi had firmly believed that purchasing that camera for Sakura had been one of the worst decisions of his life; that was, until he woke up the morning of his birthday, depressed by the knowledge that his team wouldn't be around to celebrate it with him, only to discover a photo album somehow smuggled into his home, all but over flowing with every single memory he and his team had ever made.

_Six_

Two drinks in, and Sasuke was mildly suspicious of Naruto's rather impressive winning streak; five drinks in and Sasuke couldn't stop himself from tossing more money onto the table; a good night's sleep later, and Naruto was left with an empty wallet and a day spent trying to get the loaded die Sasuke had shoved up his teammate's nose back _out_.

_Cave_

It was damp and dark, and they were going to be stuck there until there was enough of a break in the fighting to give someone a chance to dig them out; but with Naruto complaining and Sasuke giving dirty looks and Kakashi reading in the corner, Sakura liked to think she could handle the wait just fine.

_Everyone_

Certainly they were aware of the names they were making for themselves within their own village, but even Kakashi had been surprised when his students-turned-teammates came home bewildered by the fact that the town they'd been sent to had been besides themselves to be receiving assistance from _the Team Kakashi_—surprised, and more proud than he could possibly ever say.

_World_

They all stared at the map, so huge its ends trailed over every side of the table, and frowned, although they didn't accept they were completely and totally lost until Sasuke, after hesitating for a moment, pointed to a basically random spot and declared, "we could be here."

_Song_

When he'd agreed to move in with Sasuke, Naruto had been completely unprepared to deal with the other boy's most out of character bad habit—warbling his way through every single shower.

_Captains_

If he was being perfectly honest with himself, Naruto figured he should have seen it coming; however, he felt this in no way justified the looks of pure horror his team had fixed him with when he announced over Friday ramen that he'd been picked to take charge of a Genin team.

_Be_

She knew that one day—maybe tomorrow, maybe years away—she would be left standing over a corpse or a grave; but today they were at her side, and as little a thing as it was, it was going to have to be enough.

_Home_

Someone once told Sakura that children were what made a house a home; and as she stared at Naruto and Sasuke, perfectly framing the hole in her wall as one pointed an accusing finger and the other scowled and blamed right back, Sakura wondered if these were the kind of children they had in mind.

_School_

There was little in life that could make Kakashi as happy the news that, after years of putting up with what had to be the most trying mission he had every accepted, his three students were all about to be taught the ultimate lesson—after all, what better revenge could a teacher have but to watch as his own students were tossed into the murky waters of Genin team teaching themselves?

_Lovebug_

When Sasuke terrified Sakura's first boyfriend by stalking him randomly, when Naruto interrogated the ex's of the girl Sasuke asked out for a second date, when Sakura tricked three of Naruto's possible dates into spending "quality time" with her, they'd all thrown fits about how their teammates needed to stay out of their love lives—something Kakashi watched with quiet amusement, wondering when the day would come when his students would learn that your first team would forever be the deepest relationship any one of them would ever have.

_Odd_

As they grew older, it seemed they only grew flashier—Naruto got louder, Sakura more explosive, and the fans Sasuke wore kept getting bigger—but they also grew stronger, and Kakashi was completely convinced that the trio's ability to continually balance these two things was their greatest accomplishment yet.

_Crazy_

They made so little sense, the three of them, when their personalities were shoved together in the same room alongside the expectation that they all coexist peacefully; but it worked—_they_ worked—and no one was sure if that made the least or the most sense of all.

_Hold_

For some reason, they had never thought of themselves as bearers of the next generation—an unknown until her time, an orphan, a clan-less prodigy; bringers of life they were not—until abruptly one of them was holding a tiny life in their hands for the first time, and all of a sudden the future they were building was given crystal clear direction.

_Mobile_

Sakura was standing, hands folded over her chest, gaze far off as she watched the vast forest, waiting for the two people she knew would eventually emerge from it just like all the times they had before—they could come home to her, retake their places at her side, and they would take the next step, marching towards the future—their future—_together._

_Keep_

They didn't know it, would never know it, but they weren't, never had, would never be just another team quickly building just a simple name for themselves—they were building a way of life, one that would change society in a way it couldn't turn back from: they were building a legacy that would truly change the _world._

* * *

_Everlasting_

Standing at the precipice of a world on the brink of war, Kakashi would be lying if he said he was not disappointed that his team couldn't have been spared the fate that was their lot; but even at their darkest hour he would not lose hope—hope that the life they deserved, the life that they had been denied, could still one day be theirs.

One day they wouldn't just be Team Seven.

They would be _their _Team Seven.


End file.
